Leonard Bernstein once said, “The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.” From Candide to West Side Story, from music educator to famous conductor, Leonard Bernstein left listeners just as he suggested—with the feeling that something was right in the world.

While Bernstein was born in the Boston area, he found New York City fascinating—and many of his dramatic works, including the ballet Fancy Free (1944), the musicals On the Town (1944) and Wonderful Town (1952), and West Side Story reflect this preoccupation. First premiered on Broadway in 1957, West Side Story merges the gritty reality of urban violence—the rivalry between two gangs of teenagers, the Jets and the Sharks—with a Shakespearean love story. Bernstein called the concert score he created from the musical “symphonic dances,” rather than the more typical suite, perhaps calling attention to the musical’s interconnected themes and intense physicality. The movements are as follows:

1. Prologue (Allegro moderato): the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks.
2. Somewhere: Adagio. The two gangs are united through a dream ballet.
3. Scherzo. In the same dream, the gangs find themselves “in a playful world of space, air, and sun.”
4. Mambo. The competitive dance between the gangs.
5. Cha-Cha. Tony and Maria see each other for the first time.
6. Meeting Scene. The music that accompanies their first words.
7. Cool Fugue. The Jets’ hostility culminates in counterpoint.
8. Rumble. The violent climax in which both gang leaders are killed.
9. Finale. Tony dies in Maria’s arms.